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Ever found yourself playing it safe rather than speaking up, making a change or taking a chance only to regret it later? Ever sat in a meeting thinking, “If only I had the guts?”

Let's face it, most of us wish we were a little braver at times - in our jobs, in our careers... in our lives.

But what is bravery anyway?

It’s a word often used synonymously with courage –both of which get mistaken for fearlessness or acts of heroism on the battlefield. They’re neither.

In reality, we have opportunities to be brave on a daily basis. Often we just don’t see them or, wired as we are to avoid risk, we opt instead for the safer path of least resistance. The problem is, it’s a path that rarely leads to somewhere you'd want to go.

Each of these actions require conquering fear in some way, large or small. Which is what being brave is all about – taking action despite the presence of fear, the perceived personal risk, the uncertainty of the outcome and the vulnerability you'll feel in the process.

Here are five ways to grow your 'courage muscles' - not because bravery guarantees success, but because you can never succeed without it.

1. Know Your Why

It would be foolish to take a stick your neck out if you weren't sure why you were doing it. Likewise it is easier to be brave when you're very crystal clear about about WHY you need to take a risk - whether cold calling a prospect, holding someone accountable, challenging your boss's thinking, or starting up a business. So ask yourself: “For the sake of what am I doing this?" When you are clear on your highest purpose, there's little you cannot do because a big WHY compels you to leave your comfort zone as often as is required to fulfil it.

2. Re-think Risk

Studies in neuro-science and psychology have found that we have numerous cognitive biases which interfere with our ability to accurately assess risk. Dr. Daniel Kahneman found that we are wired to overestimate the probability of things going wrong and to underestimate our own abilities to handle risk (particularly women!).

Let’s face it, most people have a little voice in their head that whispers into their ear “You’re not smart enough,” “You’ll make a fool of yourself,” "What if you mess up?" “What will everybody say?”

While that voice can be highly critical and a darn pest at times, it's simply fear doing what it's programmed to do - protect you! What your fear is unable to do, though, is discern that an avoidance of short term pain can often create far more of it in the long run.

You need to acknowledge that your fear is trying to keep you safe. Only then can you reclaim the power it holds and make the very deliberate decision to take action in its presence (what bravery is all about!) Sure, what you are doing may not seem as momentous as scaling Mt. Everest, but over time, when you keep pushing on despite that little voice urging you not to, you tame it and build the confidence, competence and courage to do bigger things; ascend your own personal Everest.

4. Reframe Failure

Failure doesn’t mean anything more than that we tried something and didn’t produce the result we wanted. It’s the spin we put on our failures that fuels our fear of them. So instead of interpreting failure as a permanent inadequacy on your part, view it as just part of the course of achieving success. Think: “I tried something. I didn’t get the result I wanted. What can I learn? What should I try next?” As Sir Richard Branson said, “It’s only through failure that we learn .” Thomas Edison took 1,200 attempts to discover how to make a light bulb work. Imagine if he’d stopped at 1,199 because he decided he was a loser!

5. Don't Trade Personal Power For People Pleasing

We are innately social beings who like to be liked, and we're wired to avoid doing or saying things that could put us at risk of criticism, disapproval or outright social or professional rejection.

I often ask my clients, "What would you do if you didn't care what anybody thought?" It's not that we shouldn't be mindful of what others think. That would be foolish and unkind. It's just that we shouldn't let what other people think matter more than we what do! Too often though, we let what other people think (or simply what we think they may think) hold the balance of power in our lives. However, whenever we let what other people think dictate our own actions, we’re ostensibly giving our power away to them, albeit both unconsciously and unintentionally.

Living bravely is about forging your own path, living life on your own terms and refusing to let what other people think dictate what you say or do or wear on a daily basis. There is never a better time to reclaim the personal power you've surrendered to pleasing others than right now. As I wrote in my new book Brave, "Don't wait to feel brave before you start acting as though you were ."

So let me ask you, if you were to do one brave thing today where would you start?

It's time to 'train the brave.' Your success and happiness is riding on it.